Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Here we go again

If the mounting reports are to believed, then we will part company with Sven in the summer, although if he is to be sacked, I can't see Frank waiting that long as he will want to get Big Phil in situ asap. If anyone cares to look back to some of my old KOK articles, it will be clear that I was not one of his admirers when he was England boss. Following his appointment and the great start he made at City, some readers were quick to dig out old issues and remind some contributors of what they had previously said about the Swede. A friend of mine asked, bearing in mind that I had written a few uncomplimentary things about him, whether or not my opinion had changed. The simple answer is, no, my opinion of him as England manager hasn't changed. He gave preference to players as long as they were from Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham (in that order) irrespective of their form and he played too many players out of position to accommodate certain favourites. I keep being told though, that his record as England boss is bettered only by Ron Greenwood and Alf Ramsey (is it too late to organise a bring back Ramsey campaign?) since the FA appointed Capello, has anything changed? Beckham has won his 100th cap and been told he can continue playing. Ferdinand has been made captain and Micah Richards was overlooked in favour of Wes Brown. Erikson did the best job possible with a massively over hyped group of players and Capello can do no more. With regards to Erikson as City boss, I have to say that I will be sorry to see him go. The press have had a field day, detailing his signings and labelling most as flops, claiming he has wasted £48 million. I would disagree. Giovanni was only signed on a one year contract and didn't cost much. Bojinv has been injured, Bianchi will fetch more or less what we paid for him. Castillo is on a one year loan and Caciedo is only (nnn)nineteen and like Ronaldo, has time to improve. Elano, Petrov, Corluka and Fernandez all look sound buys and well worth the cash. He has given Joe Hart an extended run and he looks like a future England goalkeeper, or at least he will once he goes to play for one of the five clubs mentioned earlier, right Mr Capello? He has made players such as Ireland, Onuoha, Johnson first team regulars and next season that number is also likely to include Sturridge, Williamson and Logan. He re-negotiated the Benjani signing so we only paid £4 million instead of £8 million, although the player has not made the kind of start we all hoped he would, I wouldn't yet call him a dud. My only main complaints against him is that he perseveres with Vassell and Sun Jihai, who is an accident waiting to happen and that he failed to give Bianchi and Giovanni a long enough spell in the side. The main failings this season have been the same failings that blighted the managerial careers of City managers, Laurence Furniss, Joshua Parlby, Sam Ormerod, Tom Maley, Harry Newbould, Ernest Magnall, Wilf Wild, Les McDowall, Joe Mercer, Tony Book, Kevin Keegan and all the others. A lack of consistancy, an inability to beat the small teams and the incredible knack of shooting ourselves in the foot. It will be so forever more, whether our boss was Phil Scolari or (bite your tongue) Alex Ferguson. Even if Frank gives the next boss £200 million to spend, we will always be struggling to compete with the big four UK clubs and the other top European clubs as they can offer regular Champions League football. It was also reported that Niall Quinn is to give Keane (spit) £80 million to spend to turn Sunderland into a premiership force. He is wasting his money, Sunderland are restricted just the way we are in that the type of players we need to attract for us to become one of the elite, wont come and so we take a chance by signing the next best group of foreign players. For the first time in years, under Sven it looked as if we were heading in the right direction. He deserves at least another year.

2 comments:

Tom, I'm not going to hark on about what you said during his reign as England boss, but to suggest he gave player preference is perhaps overlooking the amount of 1st caps he gave to players from the likes of Charlton, Aston Villa and of course City. We were all bored of how many new faces were in each new England squad- you can't have it both ways.

Brown- as garbage as I think he is- played IN PLACE of Richards becuase Richards was injured- and has been since if I'm not mistaken.

The only thing I don't like Sven for during his England tenure is the fact that he kept on taking his dosh after he'd left the post- not a nice thing to do if you ask me.

Now as far as his leaving City goes (and leave he will) I think it's an absolute disgrace and I also think our chairman will cause us much embarrassment and anger with his tinkering and upheavals. He's gone back on his word and therefore cannot be trusted and I only hope we don't rue the day of Sven's departure as much as we did Tony Book's.

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